Materials may be secured together using many different methods including, for example, pre-heated hot clinching and friction stir spot welding. Pre-heated hot clinching techniques often result in the thermal expansion of the materials. For example, in one form of pre-heated hot clinching, after the punch and/or the die are continuously heated by resistance heaters, the sheets are placed in the die where they draw heat from the pre-heated tools. When the sheets reach a desired temperature, the punch advances to form the clinch joint in the die. Friction stir spot welding often results in brittle phase formation when joining different materials (e.g., aluminum and magnesium). Other clinching techniques may require the precise alignment of the clinching tool with particular features of the materials to be clinched and/or may result in the splitting or cracking of the clinch button.